Arrow Video
4K UHD Release: August 27, 2024
Video: 1.78:1/2160p (HDR10/Dolby Vision)/Color
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 (The Woman), English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 (Offspring)
Subtitles: English SDH
Run Time: 102:43 (The Woman), 79:10 (Offspring)
Director: Lucky Mckee (The Woman), Andrew van den Houten (Offspring)
The Woman (Pollyanna McIntosh) is the last surviving member of a deadly clan of feral cannibals that has roamed the American wilderness for decades. When successful country lawyer Chris Cleek (Sean Bridgers) stumbles upon her whilst hunting in the woods, he decides to capture and "civilize" her with the help of his seemingly perfect all-American family, including his wife Belle (Angela Bettis) and daughter Peggy (Lauren Ashley Carter). The Cleeks will soon learn, however, that hell hath no fury like The Woman scorned… (From Arrow’s official synopsis)
Early in the post-millennium, as American horror was turning dark, grimy, and violent, sophomore director Lucky McKee scored a surprise festival circuit hit with his intimate, funny, and ultimately very moving variation on Frankenstein, May (2002). He followed it up with one of the better episodes of Showtime’s Masters of Horror series, Sick Girl (2006), and an ode to girls’ boarding school horror movies, like Argento’s Suspiria (1977) and Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s The House That Screamed (Spanish: La residencia; aka: The Boarding School, 1969), entitled The Woods (also 2006). While neither garnered a May-level reaction, when coupled with his independent, post-college project debut, All Cheerleaders Die (2001), they positioned McKee as a premiere figure in horror centered on women at a time when not many actual women were directing horror movies.
Meanwhile, splatterpunk author Jack Ketchum (aka: Dallas William Mayr) had been rising through the ranks of horror fiction since the early 1980s and the increasingly brutal and gritty mid-budget feature horror industry began putting his material to film, beginning with Chris Sivertson’s The Lost (2006) and Gregory M. Wilson’s true crime shocker The Girl Next Door (2007). For his The Woods follow-up, McKee was set to direct an adaptation of Ketchum’s 1995 novel Red (Headline Book), but was fired and replaced by Trygve Allister Diesen partway through production for undisclosed reasons. In 2009, Ketchum’s 1991 novel The Offspring (Diamond Books), itself a sequel to his 1981 debut Off Season (Ballantine), was made into a straight-to-DVD feature under Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert’s Ghost House Pictures and director Andrew van den Houten.
Off Season and Offspring were a loose adaptation of the partially factual legend of the Sawney Bean family – a clan of inbred cannibals that haunted the roads of Edinburgh, Scotland during the 16th century. The family reportedly murdered and consumed at least a thousand people before they were finally captured and doomed to execution without a trial. Sawney Bean was also the inspiration behind Wes Craven’s groundbreaking survival horror classic The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and Van den Houten’s film garnered unflattering comparisons to Alexandre Aja’s The Hills Have Eyes remake (2006). However, it did leave the door open to a sequel, prompting Ketchum and McKee to co-write a screenplay and novel entitled The Woman in 2011.
The Woman was roughly based on the Grimms’ fairy tale Iron John, which was also the basis of Robert Bly’s Jungian analysis Iron John: A Book About Men (Addison-Wesley, 1990), which itself inspired a self-help/philosophical movement known as the mythopoetic men's movement in the 1990s. Consequently, the film has been referred to as a dark satire of the movement, though informed by the more blatantly misogynistic ‘men’s rights’ and incel movements of the late ‘00s. In the same vein, it shares themes of imprisonment, torture, generational abuse, and, of course, misogyny with The Girl Next Door and fits the uniquely feminine perspectives on sorrow and revenge seen in May and, to a lesser extent, The Woods.
It’s possible to interpret The Woman as a kind of reflection of and answer to May, with a family man trying to socialize a feral captive with violence standing in for a lonely young woman trying to manufacture a companion with the body parts of murdered friends. The juxtaposition is strengthened by the participation of May actress Angela Bettis (who, for the record, was fired from Red alongside McKee) playing the already ‘socialized’ housewife doing her best to ignore her husband’s cruelty. The problem with the comparison is that The Woman is confrontational and shocking, not melancholically romantic, as May, Sick Girl, and The Woods all were. It’s unpleasant by design, which might alienate McKee’s original audience and muddle its themes in the process. It is a pretty shrewd expansion of McKee and Ketchum’s previous work, but only if you can handle the experience.
Actress Pollyanna McIntosh, who had played The Woman in both Offspring and The Woman, and probably understood the character better than anyone else, wrote and directed a third film, entitled Darlin’, in 2019. McKee and Ketchum collaborated on two more novels, I'm Not Sam (Sinister Grin, 2012) and The Secret Life of Souls (Pegasus, 2016). Ketchum passed away in 2018.
Bibliography
Subversive Horror Cinema: Counterculture Messages of Films from Frankenstein to the Present by Jon Towlson (McFarland & Company, 2014)
Video
In the US, The Woman first hit DVD in 2012 from Vivendi Visual Entertainment. Soon after, it came to Blu-ray from The Collective as part of their Bloody Disgusting Select line, then, in 2020, Arrow took a new 4K restoration – supervised and approved by Lucky McKee – and put out their own Blu-ray. Now, the company has taken that restoration and released it on 4K UHD as part of a limited edition double-feature with The Offspring (see extras).
From what I can gather, The Woman was shot in 2K using Sony CineAlta digital cameras and needed to be upscaled to 4K for this remaster. The 1.78:1, 2160p transfer doesn’t appear obviously upscaled, but the footage does struggle with flat lighting, fuzzy backgrounds, and overly-sharpened close-ups – all issues familiar to modestly-budgeted, shot-on-DV movies from the end of the 2000s. It’s hard to blame the remaster for any of this and, while I’m not sure there’s much of a detail or clarity boost, the regrading and HDR enhancements do make the drab daylight interiors look a tad more cinematic and help clarify the darkest night-time sequences (which are the old Blu-ray’s greatest strength). Unfortunately, I can’t get screencaps from a UHD, so the samples on this page are taken from a 1080p source and only good for minor illustrative purposes. They give you an idea as to the digital look of the film, but not the improvements made by the upscaled remaster. Overall, I’m not convinced that it’s worth the UHD upgrade for fans that already own the early remastered Arrow Blu-ray.
Audio
The Woman is presented with 5.1 and 2.0 options, both in uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio. The mixes are similar with the 5.1 version coming out ahead thanks to the centered dialogue and extra EPK oomph. It is a largely dialogue-driven movie, so clarity and performance quality are the most vital aural aspects – though the over-the-top crunches and squishes that accompany the gore are also pretty important. Sean Spillane’s music is made up of electronic soundscapes and folksy rock songs. The diegetic end of the soundtrack includes songs from Zaebo Pasca, McKee, and Looper (2012) director Rian Johnson.
Extras
Disc 1: The Woman 4K UHD
Commentary with director Lucky McKee – The first of four Arrow exclusive commentaries features McKee solo. There were a lot of commentary hours to get through, so I ended up doing particularly quick sample passes at all four tracks, just to get an idea. Working from notes, McKee covers several aspects of the production, from casting to themes, co-writing with Ketchum, direction, and more.
Commentary with McKee, editor Zach Passero, sound designer Andrew Smetek, and composer Sean Spillane – The four participants reminisce and sort of interview each other about their experiences making the film.
Commentary with star Pollyanna McIntosh – The actress discusses the challenges of the character and working on location, and gives a good indication as to the ample size of her creative contribution.
Commentary with Scott Weinberg – The FEARnet.com critic, host of the Overhated Podcast, and fan of The Woman explores several aspects of the film and its themes, and offers his opinion on the mixed critical reaction.
Dad on the Wall: Filming The Woman (75:13, HD) – An extensive collection of raw, fly-on-the-wall (hence the title) behind-the-scenes footage with little commentary that plots the making of the film in chronological order, day-by-day.
Meet Peggy Cleek (19:59, HD) – Actress Lauren Ashley Carter, who plays oldest daughter Peggy, chats about casting, being a fan of McKee, preparing by listening to Spillane’s music, and the physical and emotional challenges of the role.
Malam Domesticam: The Making of The Woman (25:29, HD) – This archival featurette was first seen on the original DVD/BD release.
Meet the Makers (6:49, HD) – This series of short featurettes originally aired on Chiller to promote the film.
American Horror: A Panel Discussion (44:46, HD) – Footage from the Film4 Frightfest Total Film panel discussion, including McKee, Van den Houten, Larry Fessenden, Adam Green, Joe Lynch, and Ti West (previously seen on Revolver Entertainment’s UK Blu-ray).
Deleted scenes and outtakes (5:55, HD)
Mi Burro (6:41, HD) – An animated short directed by editor Zach Passero and produced by McKee
"Distracted" by Sean Spillane music promo slideshow (5:01, HD)
Theatrical teaser and trailer
Image gallery
Disc 2: Offspring (2009) 4K UHD
Offspring (79:09, 4K, DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0) – I’m not going to do a complete review here, because I’ve written a bit about Offspring already. What I will say is that it is a bit better than I remember, its violence is leeringly cynical, and it is very emblematic of its time. If younger readers are curious as to what a low budget, largely straight-to-DVD movie looked like at the end of the 2000s, Offspring is a prime example.It was originally released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2009 as part of Lionsgate’s Ghost House Underground collection. For its UHD debut, a new 4K restoration was supervised and approved by director Andrew van den Houten. This is easily the best I’ve seen the film look, after having reviewed it on DVD and Blu-ray in the past. Specifically, the 4K scan really brings out the texture and unique color quality of the 16mm source.
Commentary with director Andrew van den Houten and digital colourist Matt McClain – This first track was recorded specifically for Arrow’s release. Van den Houten discusses the production, casting, Ketchum’s novel, and his original inspirations, while McClain chimes in whenever the director is appreciating the new transfer.
Commentary with writer Jack Ketchum, Andrew van den Houten, and cinematographer William M. Miller – This archival track was recorded for the original Ghost House Underground release and, given Ketchum’s involvement, focuses a little more on the story and original novel. There’s a lot of overlap between the tracks, so I’d personally recommend listening to this one first.
Pollyanna & Andrew (14:20, HD) – The director and McIntosh chat about the making of Offspring and adapting the book to screen.
Fly on the Wall: Filming Offspring (42:39, HD) – The title says it all, again, as this is another fly-on-the-wall style making-of documentary, featuring raw footage of location scouting, camera set-ups, behind-the-scenes-to-finished-scene comparisons, director/cast interactions, and more.
Progeny: The Birth Of Offspring (20:46, SD) – Another original DVD/BD archival featurette/EPK made up of on-set cast & crew interviews
Meet Jack Ketchum (6:16, HD) – An extended version of the webisode (see below) with the writer from the set.
Restoration comparison (2:50, HD)
Audition To Scene comparison (1:11, HD)
First Stolen's Bailout (3:10, SD) – Yet another archival piece about the time one of the actors was arrested and the production had to post bail.
Archival webisodes (Play-all option, 17:49, SD)
Cannibals Attack Porsche (0:57, SD)
Caving To The Script (1:43, SD)
Something In The Backyard (1:32, SD)
Start The Engine (3:59, SD)
Meet Jack Ketchum (1:20, SD)
Andrew and Bill: Take One (2:15, SD)
Meet Tommy Nelson (3:01, SD)
One Of The Most Unusual Horror Films... (3:06, SD)
Archival Easter Eggs
Cannibal Dance (0:24, SD)
Kid Cannibal (1:13, SD)
Prowler Stick (0:41, SD)
Theatrical trailer
Image gallery
BD-ROM screenplay
The images on this page are taken from an older BD – NOT the 4K UHD – and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.
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